Cao jolts the House

In December 2008, the nationally unknown Vietnamese community activist captured a seat for Republicans in majority-black New Orleans, becoming an instant — albeit short-lived — celebrity for the GOP.

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On Saturday night, he handed Democrats their only Republican vote on the centerpiece of their domestic agenda, a massive overhaul of the nation's health care system that promises to enhance coverage for tens of millions of Americans and thousands of Cao's constituents. Now he's a bit of a cult hero on the left — a profile in courage, Democrats say — and television bookers were scrambling to find cell phone numbers for his aides Sunday.

Republicans and Democrats who have worked closely with Cao in Louisiana and Washington say they weren’t a bit surprised — even if much of the political world did a double take — when Cao registered a green light on the scoreboard in the House chamber.

“I think he works hard. I think he studies things, and I think he tries to do the right thing,” said an administration official who has worked with Cao. “People in the administration reach out to him a lot because he’s willing to talk about things nondogmatically.”

Of course, Cao and the Obama administration have a major shared interest in the rebuilding of New Orleans, which puts him in regular contact with the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Homeland Security and Education.

On health care, Cao met with the White House point person, Nancy-Ann DeParle, in his office and spoke to her repeatedly by phone during the past couple of months, according to an aide. President Barack Obama called him Saturday, giving Cao an opportunity to press the president to help with hospital development and forgiveness for disaster loans in New Orleans.

All along, Cao was looking for reasons to support the bill, according to spokeswoman Princella Smith. But there was one seemingly insurmountable obstacle among a series of reservations: The former Jesuit seminarian was dead-set against voting for it if it expanded abortion rights in a new health care exchange.

He met with members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and called Democrats to help secure their votes for the Stupak-Pitts amendment sharply limiting the use of federal dollars for subsidizing abortions, according to Smith.